Canon Sheehan in Perspective

The nationalist spectrum towards the end of Canon Sheehan’s life comprised a wide range of diverging organizations. The biggest was the conservative Parliamentary Party under John Redmond, seeking a local Irish parliament with limited powers, or Home Rule. There was the small, politically more radical, though socially equally conservative Sinn Féin Party under Arthur Griffith, who, inspired by Hungarian nationalists, advocated boycotting Westminster and setting up an independent Irish parliament in Dublin subject only to the British monarchy. D.P. Moran, an ardent supporter of the Irish language, propagated an intellectually independent Ireland in his journal The Leader , attacking with verve and originality both political parties, the drink industry, discrimination of Catholics, Anglo-Irish writers and an apathetic people. The militant secret Irish Republican Brotherhood, whose leader Pearse was well known through his work in the Gaelic League, sought complete independence through physical force; Connolly’s socialists aimed at political and social revolution. Only a small group of Anglo-Irish men and women were involved in furthering national autonomy, but their influence was dramatic. The movements they were involved in were non-political and non-denominational, such as the radical departure in rural Ireland aiming at economic Home Rule through cooperation, or a cultural organization like the Gaelic League. Without the work of those Anglo-Irish men and women, who had become more Irish than the anglicized Irish, there would have been no independent Ireland: the resolve of the radical nationalists who achieved it had been fired by the Gaelic heritage these people had discovered and brought back to life, making it a source of inspiration and strength in finding the way towards the new nation. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.